Grey patch on black ghost knife

[jfcp]

I have a roughly 3-inch black ghost knife in my 20 gal long, heavily planted. It's been a couple of weeks, and have had no problems recently, only at first, when he acted a bit as if there might have been waster quality issues - darting and scraping some.

I did a water change via gravel vacuum, and everything seemed to be fine.

Also in the tank,

2 corys

3 yoyo loaches

1 pleco

1 " Chinese algae eater".

The tank was cycled for 1-2 months before the ghost was added.

Everyone seems to be doing well, no rot or ich etc, no darting about, and only one of the loaches ever does any scratching on things, but that one always did.

Just did another major water change two days ago, but today, the ghost today had a sort of somewhat rectangular, gray patch, high-up on one side, near the spine.

It looks a bit like it could maybe be abrasion, or shedding of a slime layer, but I have not seen him scraping against anything, but I believe scaleless fish really need to be looked after with disease even more than other fish.

Do black ghosts commonly injure themselves by scraping? How worried should I be here?

My set-up:

20 gal long w/ Aqueon glass top

Aquaclear 20-50 gal HOB filter

2 sponge filters, in the rear corners, run by 2 large air pumps.

Temperature maintained by a heater around 76 F

48W full spectrum LED light, on a 16hr daylight, 8 hr nightlight cycle, with dawn and dusk feature used.

LOTS of plants; 2 Water lily, several Aponogeton, several Java Fern, Hornwort, 3 large 2 small Marimo moss balls, & some others I don't have names for.

One piece of Mopani wood, which puts just a touch of tannin in the water.

The fish get frozen brine & Mysis shrimp & blood worms; AND Bug Bites "Tropical Formula" , which is mainly soldier fly larva.

 

[Barry Tetra]

Can we have a picture? It will help us identify it.

 

[itiwhetu]

Chinese algae eater and Ghost Knife, not a good combination!

 

[jfcp]

Chinese algae eater and Ghost Knife, not a good combination!

hmmm... so far, no problems

dumb luck maybe....

 

[jfcp]

Can we have a picture? It will help us identify it.

I'll try to get a pic, but you know how black ghosts are...

 

[threecharacters]

Your stock will become too large for your tank. Perhaps you know this and plan on upgrading to a much larger tank later (100 gal probably would be good, or larger even).

The Black Ghost will reach 20 inches, the pleco will reach about 16 inches (assuming it's a common pleco), the CAE will reach about 10 inches, and the yoyo's will reach 5-6 inches. Basically all your stock except the corys aren't suitable for your tank long term. Plus, corys are sociable and most interesting when kept in large groups. Further, the corys will probably be eaten once your other fish start growing. Cory's have spines that make them hard to swallow, so an attempted eating will probably result in the death of the eater and the eaten.

The pleco could be eating the slime coat off the black ghost, they've been known to do that. It really would be best if you could attach a photo.

 

[jfcp]

Your stock will become too large for your tank. Perhaps you know this and plan on upgrading to a much larger tank later (100 gal probably would be good, or larger even).

The Black Ghost will reach 20 inches, the pleco will reach about 16 inches (assuming it's a common pleco), the CAE will reach about 10 inches, and the yoyo's will reach 5-6 inches. Basically all your stock except the corys aren't suitable for your tank long term. Plus, corys are sociable and most interesting when kept in large groups. Further, the corys will probably be eaten once your other fish start growing. Cory's have spines that make them hard to swallow, so an attempted eating will probably result in the death of the eater and the eaten.

The pleco could be eating the slime coat off the black ghost, they've been known to do that. It really would be best if you could attach a photo.

Thanks for all that info!
I knew the Ghost and the pleco would get big, had no idea most of the others would though, but I did figure on a much larger tank.

The pleco is the only fish in the tank that sometimes spars just a bit with the ghost, and I planned to trade it for a variety of pleco that just never gets big.

Put a third cory in just today - to see how many to get schooling.

fascinating - that a pleco might.

I'll get a pic of the ghost tonight, unless the patch is gone by then.

Thanks again!

Your stock will become too large for your tank. Perhaps you know this and plan on upgrading to a much larger tank later (100 gal probably would be good, or larger even).

The Black Ghost will reach 20 inches, the pleco will reach about 16 inches (assuming it's a common pleco), the CAE will reach about 10 inches, and the yoyo's will reach 5-6 inches. Basically all your stock except the corys aren't suitable for your tank long term. Plus, corys are sociable and most interesting when kept in large groups. Further, the corys will probably be eaten once your other fish start growing. Cory's have spines that make them hard to swallow, so an attempted eating will probably result in the death of the eater and the eaten.

The pleco could be eating the slime coat off the black ghost, they've been known to do that. It really would be best if you could attach a photo.

Went to get a photo of the ghost last night, and the gray patch was completely gone.

Maybe it was just the pleco having a taste .

Thanks for all the info!